Naturalistic Planting Design: The Essential Guide

by Nigel Dunnett

Nigel Dunnett’s gardens and landscapes have lifted the spirits of city dwellers for decades. They are beautiful, uplifting places that resonate with the energy of the natural world and stop us in our tracks. But how does he achieve these plantings with their successional waves of colorful perennials, elegant grasses, and pollinators at work with so few demands on irrigation and other natural resources? In this book he shares his inspiration, philosophy and working methods. He puts his own particular style of naturalistic planting in historical context, teaches us how to read wild plant communities and understand how they behave in garden situations. Finally he shares his plant selection, which includes trees and shrubs as well as perennial and annual meadow plants, and implementation techniques in a neat planting design toolkit.

Genres: Gardening, Horticulture, Nonfiction, Nature, Education, Landscape Architecture

240 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2019

Reviews

[Sally Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure I needed the author’s version of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs rejigged to fit in with his planting designs. Plus I like rustic, twee shit, which Dunnett disdains in favour of brutalist, utilitarian hard landscaping features. I guess on some things we will agree to disagree.

However there’s a load amazing planting schemes and explanations of the theory that makes them work so well, as well as some practical pointers. The practical stuff is pretty thin on the ground though so if you want a step by step guide this isn’t going to help. With gardening I’ve found that however much you research how to do something it will never match perfectly your plot or circumstances, so it’s best just to get on with it and do what you fancy. This book underlines that approach while providing some great ideas and inspiration.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll be coming back to this one a lot.